GolfBlogger UK World’s Golf Ranking and Men’s Golf Ranking

The Official World Golf Ranking, often referred to as the OWGR, was launched in 1997 and originally known as the Sony Golf Rankings.The Golf Ranking top spot has changed hands 43 times since former Masters Golf Champion and Ryder Cup Captain Bernhard Langer of Germany occupied the top position. The Official World Golf Ranking, often referred to as the OWGR, was launched in 1997 and originally known as the Sony Golf Rankings.

The Golf Ranking top spot has changed hands 43 times since former Masters Golf Champion and Ryder Cup Captain Bernhard Langer of Germany occupied the top position and only 12 professional golfers have held the coveted position of being officially the number 1 professional golfer in the
The current world golf number 1 Tiger Woods of the USA holds the record for the most consecutive weeks at number one (279, from June 12, 2005 to October 10, 2010), as well as the most total weeks in the position (currently 621), during his current tenure as world golf ranking number one of 279 weeks.

The twelve golfers who have held the position as official world Golf rankingnumber 1 read as follows, as at 10 October, 2010:
• Bernhard Langer (Germany) 3 weeks
• Severiano Ballesteros (Spain) 61 weeks
• Greg Norman (Australia) 331 weeks
• Nick Faldo (England) 97 weeks
• Ian Woosnam (Wales)50 weeks
• Fred Couples (USA) 16 weeks
• Nick Price (Zimbabwea) 44 weeks
• Tom Lehman (USA) 1 week
• Ernie Els (South Africa) 9 weeks
• David Duval (USA) 15 weeks
• Vijay Singh (Fiji) 32 weeks
• Tiger Woods (USA) 6210 weeks
As the mens golf ranking top spot has alternated between players over the years, Greg Norman also known as the 'Great White Shark' has reached world golf ranking number one on eleven separate occasions, Tiger Woods 10 times, Seve Ballesteros 5 and Nick Faldo 4, with Ernie Els and Vijay Singh 3 times each.

Tiger Woods at only 21 years, 5 months and 2 weeks old became the youngest ever world golf ranking number one on June 15, 1997 and the oldest holder of this coveted position was Vijay Singh was 41 years, 6 months and 2 weeks old when he first became golf ranking number one on September 5, 2004, and 42 years, 3 months and 3 weeks old when he last occupied this position on June 11, 2005.

Four Americans, a German, a Spaniard, an Australian, an Englishman, a Welshman, a Zimbabwean, a South African and a Fijian have been ranked OWGR number 1.

Only Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have held the position of golf ranking number 1 for at least 52 successive weeks and a full calendar year. Nick Faldo occupied OWGR top spot throughout 1993, Greg Norman in 1996, and Tiger Woods in the calendar years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Tiger Woods holds the record for the highest ever average OWGR points total, when he reached 32.44 OWGR points (1459.64 points accumulated over 45 golf tournaments) on June 3, 2001, at a time when he was the first ever golfer to hold all four men’s professional Major Golf Championships simultaneously, which is often referred to as the 'Tiger Slam'.

On 20 May 2001, Tiger Woods held the biggest ever lead in the world golf rankings; when his 32.33 average points was 19.40 ahead of world golf ranking number two Phil Mickelson of the USA who had an OWGR point’s average of 12.93 points.

Tiger Woods reign as Official World Golf Ranking number 1 could come to end at next week's European Tour 2010 Portugal Masters, where Lee Westwood the current golf ranking number 3 could become the second ever Englishman to occupy the coveted OWGR number 1 spot.

Who’s the best golfer in the world? There are various ways to rank golfers, including official world Golf rankings, golf ranking and stroke averages. However, not all of them are wholly reliable and they all have their flaws. GolfBlogger UK have developed their own ratings to provide the most informative analysis.